This invention relates to an apparatus for feeding fiber tufts such as cotton or chemical fiber tufts to a fiber processing machine such as a card, a roller card unit, a cleaner or the like.
The apparatus has a reserve chute chargeable with fiber tufts, a take-in mechanism such as a slowly rotating feed roll, a countersupport cooperating with the feed roll for forming a nip to advance the fiber material therebetween, an opening device, such as a rapidly rotating opening roll arranged immediately downstream of the feed roll and a feed chute which receives the fiber material from the feed roll and the opening roll.
In a known device where the gap defined by the feed roll and the countersupport is constant (for example, 5 mm), only a predetermined fiber flow rate, for example, 360 kg/h per m width may be achieved. Further, upon changes in the type of the fiber material and the behavior of the fiber, problems are often encountered concerning the clamping in the nip defined by the feed roll and the countersupport, since the clamping behavior differs dependent upon the hardness or softness of the fiber material.